Sunday, July 27, 2014

The race against
the clock shuffled the standings today on stage 20 of the Tour De France. The
riders attacked a 54km individual time trial in one of the tightest podium
races in recent years. Only utter disaster would have unhinged Vincenzo Nibali
from his overall lead, but the rest of the podium would be decided on
Saturday's race of truth.

Five-time Vuelta A
España podium finisher (and 2009 Vuelta winner) Alejandro Valverde has been
looking for a Tour De France podium finish, and today's ITT may be one of his
last chances to accomplish that feat. With recent Giro d'Italia winner Nairo
Quintana looking like the near-future of Movistar's Grand Tour GC hopes,
Valverde, at 34, is running out of time.

Stage 20 ITT Profile

Two Frenchman came
into the stage vying with Valverde for podium positions. Veteran
Jean-Christophe Peraud of AG2R, and young climbing star Thibaut Pinot of FDJ.
Last year JC Peraud started the stage-17 time trial with a broken collarbone, and
then crashed out on the course, falling on the same right shoulder.Today he had his chance for redemption.
Pinot showed this year that he conquered some demons and was ready to prove his
right to stand with the best...

208.5k from Maubourguet Pays du Val d'Adour to Bergerac;
FLAT.

164 riders took the
start on Friday. The rain seemed to follow the riders through the course.

A 5-man breakaway
group escaped by km 15, and built a lead of about 3:30 early on:

Slagter, Gautier, Elmiger, Taaramae, and
Gerard.

(All five riders
succeeded in making it into multiple breakaways in this race; this was at least
Gautier's 5th break (stages 9, 14, 16, 17, and 19).

By km75 the lead
had been brought down to about 2:30. The peloton kept the gap at about 2:30 for
the next 50k, and then started to reel the break in. Inside of 30k to go,
Garmin Sharp's Tom Jelte Slagter attacked and broke away from the peloton. The
early escapees were all swept up by the peloton by 20k to go, when Omega's Jan
Bakelants attacked from the bunch.

Profile of stage 19; northward

Garmin had more
cards to play, clearly intent on making something happen today. Alex Howes
attacked, but was soon brought back. Riders fought to be in front for the
narrow, technical cat-4 hill that topped out with 13k to go to the finish. The
rain fell heavily at times, probably dissuading more attackers.

Recidivist escapees: Gautier, Elmiger and Taaramae (R to L)

With about 13.5k to
go, another Garmin rider, Navardauskas
attacked and bridged up to his teammate Slagter, who still led the race about
10 or 15 seconds up the road. Slagter led Navardauskas over the KOM line at the
top of the Côte de Montbazillac (1.3k at 7.6%), and then Navardauskas pushed on
alone.

Navardauskas clung
to a 12-second lead with 11k to go, but then started to gradually build it up
until it leveled out between 22 and 24 seconds with about 7k left to the
finish. Navardauskas slogged through heavy downpours, and as he crossed the
Dordogne River with about 3k to go, the chasing peloton was gaining ground on
him again.

Just inside of 3k
to go, the peloton was chasing the Garmin rider through Bergerac, when a crash
near the front of the peloton created a big pile-up. Many big names were
involved, including Peter Sagan, Andre Greipel, Frank Schleck, Greg Van
Avermaet, Romain Bardet, Leopold König, and more. Later Sagan apologized and
took responsibility for the carnage, saying, "I crashed first". Known
for his excellent bike-handling skills, Sagan was a big favorite to win on
today's technical run-in.

The Tour's biggest fan watched the race go by today

A group of about 15
riders survived to chase after Navardauskas. They were at + :13 as the strong
Lithuanian sped under the flamme rouge.

Navardauskas
rounded a 90-degree left turn onto the soaked finish straight. He looked behind
to see the chase group coming fast, but his lead was sufficient.

He coasted over the
line first, taking a much-appreciated win for his hard-working Garmin
teammates.

John Degenkolb won
the sprint for second, ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Mark Renshaw.

Tom Jelte Slagter lit up the race for Garmin

It was a great attack
and win for the Lithuanian Navardauskas, but a rather disappointing finish
otherwise, since we were denied a proper bunch sprint.Fortunately for all those involved, the
crash occurred inside of 3k to go, so everybody there got the same time as the sprint
group. Jack Bauer appeared to have suffered the worst from the crash, but is
reported to be ok, and was able to take solace in the fact that his teammate
scored the win.

Garmin got a win from Ramunas Navardauskas

STAGE 20 PREVIEW:

Tomorrow is the big
54k individual time trial. The standings will certainly get a shakeup, and
then we will find out what the final 2014 Tour De France podium will look like.
The course is hilly, but without any major climbs. The sheer length of it will
destroy some riders hopes of a high finish, and we may see some surprise
results.

Stage 20 ITT profile

I expect Nibali,
Peraud, Valverde, and Van Garderen will do well. The other top GC contenders
will have to throw every last ounce of their energy into the stage 20 ITT.
Thibaut Pinot should be especially worried about losing his podium position.

The strong time
trialists outside of the top GC contention who I expect to excel on Saturday
include Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Shimano and Sylvain Chavanel of IAM. Chavanel has
expressed the desire to "do something special" in the TT.

Other typically
good TT-ers like Richie Porte and Michal Kwiatkowski are less of a sure bet, as
they both showed weakness in the mountains. But put those guys in a skinsuit
and an aero helmet, and you usually get fireworks.

Compatriots JC Peraud and Thibaut Pinot

Some of the veteran
TT-ers like Lieuwe Westra, Mick Rogers, and Vasil Kiryienka may be able to come
up with decent performances. Kiryienka and Rogers particularly showed a lot of
strength in the mountains.

Orica's Luke
Durbridge and Svein Tuft would love to put on good performances tomorrow, and
look out for Ion Izaguirre, Jan Barta, Maciej Bodnar, and Geraint Thomas. Any
of them could be capable of a good show in the race of truth.

MY PICKS:

I think this course
will suit JC Peraud very well, as
well as Tom Dumoulin and Ion
Izaguirre. In top form I would like Kwiatkowski,
Porte, and Valverde for this
course, but I'm not sure how their legs will be after the Pyrenees. Valverde
will fight hard for a podium finish however, so I would still say he is a good
pick.

I think Tony Martin means "turbo boosted" in German

But at the end of
the day, we are talking about a time trial; and you can't have a TT and not
talk about the German locomotive, Tony
Martin. I wouldn't bet on him finishing worse than second, and in this
case, I am picking him for the win.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Weather: Mostly
sunny; 76f at low elevation, and about 60f up at the finish; [Thunderstorms
were forecast for later in the day, but they never came.]

Abandoned: Heinrich
Haussler (stomach bug)

The 2014 Tour De
France raced its last day in the mountains today, conquering the Hors Categoie Pyrenean climbs of the
famed Tourmalet, and the perhaps infamous Hautacam. The Tourmalet is a classic
Tour big-mountain favorite, and is the highest pass in the Pyrenees at 2115
meters. Among this year's riders, men who have led the race over the 17k-long
climb include Thomas Voeckler, Jeremy Roy and Sylvain Chavanel. The winners on
the Hautacam however, now look like a who's who of doped cyclists. Leaving
their names aside for now, we can only hope and trust that today's winner will
not have his name one day expunged from the record books.

Vincenzo Nibali may
look unbeatable, but a great battle for the overall podium positions and the
king of the mountains jersey would be on the menu for stage 18...

Stage 18 profile; the last of the mountains

The peloton were
fortunate to race on dry roads under sunny skies all day, despite the predicted
afternoon thunderstorms. A 20-rider break formed early, and built a four-minute
lead...

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The 17th stage of
the 2014 Tour De France was dubbed the queen stage of the race. It began with
about 50k of relatively flat roads.The final 75k featured virtually no flat roads. What it did feature were
four big mountains for the peloton to climb. First, three category-1 climbs:
the 1292-meter high Col du Portillon, the 1569m Col de Peyresourde, the 1580m
Col de Val Louron Azet; and then came the finish, 1654m up on top of the Hors Categorie Pla d'Adet.

An 8-man break got
away early, without the top mountain jersey contenders. Joaquim Rodriguez
tried, but failed to get into the break again.As a result, his Katusha team chased hard to try and bridge
the gap to the leaders before they reached the mountains.

Stage 17 profile, with four big Pyrenean climbs

The 8 escapees
were: Gautier, Slagter, Elmiger,
Arashiro, Edet, Kadri, Voigt, and
Paulinho. They held a lead of one minute by the intermediate sprint point
at km 31. Kadri took the INT ahead of Elmiger and Paulinho...

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

After the transfer
west, from Nimes to Carcasonne, the riders enjoyed the final rest day on
Monday. Today the peloton headed out of Carcasonne and into the Pyrenees for
the longest stage of the race. 237.5 kilometers From Carcasonne to
Bagneres-de-Luchon, featuring the hors
categorie climb of the Port de Bales late in the stage. The finish line comes
just after the fast 20k descent off the big mountain.

The weather was
clear and sunny for the riders, as they prepared for a long day in the saddle. Everybody
wondered who would benefit and who would suffer after the rest day. Simon Yates
of OGE was a non-starter, as was World Champion Rui Costa, who is suffering
from pneumonia.

Rafal Majka of
Tinkoff Saxo grabbed the first category-4 climb at km25. The single KOM point
was all he needed to take the lead away from Joaquim Rodriguez in the king of
the mountains competition.

Stage 16 profile; into the Pyrenees

Various breakaway
attempts failed, until after almost two hours, 21 riders broke free to form the
day's main break. They were:

The highest placed
rider in the break was Kwiatkowski, who came into the stage in 16th place, down
19:24 to the overall race leader, Vincenzo Nibali. Europcar's Thomas Voeckler
had won here in Luchon twice before: on stage 16 of the 2012 Tour De France,
and on his way to winning the 2013 Route du Sud, so it was no surprise to see
him make the break.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Stage 14 on
Saturday will look something like Friday's, only tougher. At 177k, it is shorter
than stage 13, but has a lot of climbing. Most of the stage goes uphill, except
for a very few flat sections, like the approximately 10k flat around La Paute
and Bourg-d'Oisans. That's where the intermediate sprint point is located, just
about 40k into the stage. We'll see some action there. Sagan would have a
better chance than most of the sprinters at capitalizing on that INT.

The treacherous trio on stage 14

Bourg-d'Oisans is a
launch pad for some epic mountains, Like Alpe d'Huez, The Col de la Croix de
Fer and Les Deux Alpes. Stage 14 will make it's way out of Bourg-d'Oisans skipping
Huez, and head east. Then the peloton go up, up, and more up, to the first KOM
summit of the day: the 34k-long, category-1 Col du Lautaret. The first two-thirds
is easier than the last 10k or 11k, and it never gets really steep at all, but
it's a long time to be going up, and it will put some hurt into a lot of legs
that will have two more big, bad climbs still ahead of them.

The Lautaret tops
out at about 2058 meters, the highest point the race has seen so far. Then
comes the long descent that leads to the second challenge of the day: The Hors
Categorie Col d'Izoard. This beautiful climb is a Tour favorite--and one of
mine as well. At 2360 meters of elevation (or about 7740 feet) it is the
highest point in the 2014 Tour. It's characteristic serpentine switchbacks and
distinctive exposed summit has become somewhat emblematic as a French Alp Tour
de France climb.

Profile of the Col d'Izoard

The Col d'Izoard is
officially 19k at 6%. It has a couple of brief respites in the first half, but
the final 9k offer no breaks, and rise fairly steadily at grades of between
7.5% and 9% most of the way. The first rider over the summit wins the " Souvenir
Henri Desgrange" prize, in honor of the father of the Tour De France. I
think it usually comes with 5000 Euros or so.

Then a long descent
to the final climb of the day: The cat-1 Risoul climb. This is the Risoul's
first time as a finish climb in the Tour De France. It runs 12.6k and averages
6.9%. The summit and finish line are at 1855 meters up, and it has about an
880m drop.

If you've been
doing the math, you see that the categorized climbs on Saturday's stage 14 add
up to over 65k of climbing. There is even more climbing than that, but that's
just the measured ones. The first 82 kilometers are almost entirely uphill, as
you can see in the profile, so it will be a war of attrition out there
tomorrow. The riders will also
have to go through some severe weather changes as they climb through the heat,
up to the cold alpine climate above the treeline, and down, and up again and
again. With bronchial infections going around the peloton, we will probably see
some more riders getting sick, and maybe dropping out. That cold air can get to
ya.

Profile of the final climb, and new finish

MY PICKS:

Well, I dropped the
ball on Porte today, but pretty much everything and everyone else I mentioned
and predicted about the stage came true. [I scored very high in my cycling
fantasy games!] I even said that Majka could have a go, and sure enough, he
made his moves and finished the stage in 2nd place! He had been sort of
anonymous and unimpressive in the peloton the first two weeks. Usually a great
talent in the hills (He finished this year's Giro d'Italia in sixth place
overall), I think that--with or without Alberto Contador--Tinkoff Saxo planned
to save Majka for the big mountains. I think I recall in 2012, in the Vuelta a
España, Team Movistar saving the young Colombian Nairo Quintana until very late
in the game, to become Valverde's top lieutenant in the high mountains.

Rafal Majka follows Leopold Konig on stage 13

So, what about
today's picks?

Picking Nibali
would be too easy. In fact, maybe the real question should be how much is Nibali going to win by? He would certainly love to put another minute or two in his pocket before the race hits the Pyrenees...

Tejay, Valverde, Pinot,
Konig and Bardet have been great in the mountains. They all need to attack
Nibali, but who can beat him across the line at this point?

I want to say Pinot or Valverde or Van Garderen, but they are all a step behind NIbali right now.

So, I will pick Joaquim Rodriguez to win from the
break.

Long[er] shot pick:
Mikel Nieve from SKY. He didn't
finish so well on Friday on the Chamrousse, but SKY may want to make a
statement after what happened to their first
replacement leader. Give Nieve a long leash, and he just might pull it off.

I would not be
surprised to see Thomas Voeckler and Purito Rodriguez doing their best to get
into a breakaway, and chase those mountain points; and the summit finishes all
get double points, so that's incentive to go for the win, too.

197.5k from
Saint-Étienne to Chamrousse. High mountains; HC summit finish.

Weather: Clear
skies; Hot, high 80s f.

Stage 13 forays into the Alps

Matteo Trentin was
relegated from 6th to 60th place on stage 12, after his crooked sprint in the
finish, which blocked out John Degenkolb. Trentin made a public and genuine
apology for the illegal move, which he said was not intentional.

Van Den Broeck and
Kittel have been down on the ground, before the race came on the air.

*Visconti was first over the first cat-3 KOM, and Kadri was second.

Katusha are driving
at the front of the peloton.

By km85 the lead is
almost five minutes.

They have averaged
44 kph (27 mph) over the first two hours on the road.

Stage 13 profile shows two long climbs

-97k: The lead is
3:50.

-96k: Cofidis
leader Daniel Navarro is off the
bike getting attention on the roadside. He has been ill with bronchitis, and is
now climbing into the team car with a painful grimace on his face. The Spanish
climber's race is over.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Tomorrow: The Alps
arrive! The cat-1 Col de Palaquit is a Tour first-timer as the first climb in
the Alps. It's about 14k at just over 6% average. But a short descent of about
2k in length interrupts the climb after the first 3kms, so the actual 12k of
climbing includes some much steeper sections.

Stage 13 enters the Alps

The 200-k long
stage finishes at 1730m up, on the Chamrousse. It is an HC climb at 18.2k long,
with a 7.3% average gradient. Most of the steepest sections come early on the
climb, but after 180k of racing in the heat and sun, and after the long
Palaquit climb, riders will have to pace themselves carefully, or risk going
into the red too soon.

It is expected to
be another very hot day tomorrow, over 90 f. For this reason, the GC favorites
may decide not to burn too much fuel till the finish. This could allow a strong
breakaway the chance to succeed. Though what we usually see, and what I expect
we'll see tomorrow, is the GC teams timing it so that they catch the break on, or
just before, the final climb. Then the top climbers will see who's got the best
legs at the summit finish, and will try to improve their overall positions in a
tight race for the podium.

The next two days
are strictly for the mountain goats. Froome, Contador, and Talansky are gone, and
Nibali still has a nice two-minute cushion at the top of the leader board. But
we know that anything can happen in a 3-week tour, and just one day, when a
rider is not at his best, or he hits a small crack in the road, or accidentally
touches wheels with another rider, can change the entire complexion and outcome
of the race.

The HC Chamrousse climb profile

Most, if not all of
the riders currently in the top 10 overall, have been fairly evenly matched in
the few mountains we have seen so far. But this is when the dents and scratches
and nuances start to separate the conditions of the riders from each other. I
expect we will continue to have a hot battle for GC positions all the way to
the end. Then, of course comes the race of truth...

I really think that
Nibali could win the stage on Friday if he wants, and the others will have to
attack him to try and rein him in. Richie Porte and Alejandro Valverde seem
best able to challenge Nibali now. Then Bardet, Peraud, Pinot and Van Garderen
seem sort of evenly matched at a close, but second tier. In optimal
circumstances all of them, along with Mollema, Van Den Broeck, Fuglsang,
Kwiatkowski, Rui Costa, Chris Horner, Haimar Zubeldia, Leo Konig, and Pierre
Rolland are really all top-tier GC contenders, but there is only so much room
at the top.

Their fitness levels
right now suggest that the current top three on GC may be a cut above the rest,
but a quick look at the standings shows that a mere 2:16 separates the second
and tenth place riders. Those gaps should start to grow tomorrow, and some
riders will overtake others' positions, and some will fall.

Mollema seems to be
looking better since his illness, so I would definitely not count him out.
Bardet and Peraud look great, as do Tejay and Pinot, so no matter what, we will
be treated to a good fight.

Nibali said that he
will attack the others in the mountains when he can. He knows that he is not
the best at the time trial, and he will want as big a cushion as he can get
when the race gets to Bergerac on stage 20. So rather than just follow the
wheels of your nearest challengers, when you have a cozy lead, Nibali says he
will be active. It's really up to his rivals, though, to bring the race to him.

Nibali and Porte are the top two on GC. Photo: AP

I expect we'll see
guys try to get into the breakaways in the Alps like Edet, Cherel, Riblon,
Voeckler, Westra, Bakelants, Roy, Kadri, and maybe Rein Taaramae--certainly
Cofidis and Europcar will have something going. Maybe high profile guys like
Roche, Rogers, or even Majka will have a go, since no one on the Saxo team is
within 45 minutes of the race lead. Rogers is their highest placed currently,
at 41st and 47:48 off the pace.

Finally never
forget Purito Rodriguez. He is the current King of the Mountains jersey wearer,
and says he will pursue the overall in that competition. He may try to get into
a break in either or both of the Alps stages to grab more points, and maybe
have a chance to try for a stage win. I think stage 14 suits the Spaniard a
little better than 13.

My pick for stage 13:

Team SKY
replacement-captain, and ex-triathlete, the Tasmanian Richie Porte.

Longshot pick:

I hope to see
attacks from Rolland, Horner, Gadret and Konig in the Alps, among others, so
I'll pick one of my favorite riders: American Chris Horner of the Italian Lampre-Merida team.

-130k: The break
has a 3:45 advantage over the peloton. It seems early for the peloton to be
chasing down the break, but the teams have their strategies. Sprinters' teams
who hope to contest the finish will want to keep the break on a reasonably
tight leash. Giant Shimano are driving the pace now.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

1100 miles and the
first rest day behind the riders, the race is about half over (in distance)

187.5k from
Besancon to Oyonnax (still in the Jura); rolling.

Weather: mostly clear
and sunny; significantly warmer, 80 f.

DNS:
Fabian Cancellara (said he wants to
rest before training for the Worlds in Spain, which are in about nine and a
half weeks).

If you are like me
then you spent a significant amount of time last night reading all the news and
tweets about Contador's broken bike. So, I won't beleaguer the point. Just to
say, a not-so-simple chain of events took place wherein Berto crashed, and one
of his bikes got smashed. The frame was broken on the top tube and on the down
tube, with very little other damage or other marks. Team Tinkoff's final word
is that Alberto was not riding the bike that broke. They say the broken bike
was caused when the Tinkoff-Saxo car brushed past the Belkin Team car, and the
bikes on the roof racks got tangled and snapped Alberto's spare bike frame. It
was like "Bike-gate" on the social media sites, but I am perfectly
content to believe the publicized story, and get on with the race. Bicycles
certainly do overlap the top edges of the vehicles, so it is entirely plausible
that bicycles on top of two parallel cars could get tangled up. My question is:
Why haven't we seen more of that?

Unfortunately the
race will go on without the explosive attacking of the Spanish 5-time grand
tour champion, Alberto Contador. 179 riders took the start today for stage 11.

Here is a list, by
stage, of all the riders who have abandoned the race so far:

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

*Fabian Cancellara
has withdrawn from the race to get some rest before he gets on with training
for the World Championships in September.

Stage 11 profile

A few small hills
toward the back end of the stage on Wednesday may encourage some attacks, but
many sprinters could be around to contest the finish if they choose to chase
down the breaks. There is a 15-k descent to the finish in Oyonnax, so expect a
fast and furious race at the end, with stage hunters trying to keep the
sprinters' teams at bay. I expect to see Peter Sagan at the finish, ready to
add more points to his lead in the green jersey competition. Arnaud Demare (FDJ)
is another sprinter who could eat up that finish if he's got the legs.

The rolling 40k
that precede the final 15k, could be ideal for riders like Rui Costa or
Alejandro Valverde to try and get away from the other GC contenders and maybe
gain some time, but it is more likely that the GC contenders will let the fast
men duke this one out. The GC guys have the summit finishes on stages 13 and 14
to think about. Also, race leader Vincenzo Nibali would not be easy to drop on
this parcours.

Assuming the sprint
teams do not control the race on Wednesday, several talented and ambitious
riders could have a go at the stage win:

Both Tom (Giant-Shimano)
and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R) could be
eyeing this stage. I am also looking at JJ Rojas
of Movistar, Greg Van Avermaet and
Daniel Oss of BMC, Sylvain Chavanel of the pro-conti IAM team, and
Lars Boom (who won already, on the
demanding cobbled stage 5 course) and Sep Vanmarcke
of the Dutch Belkin team.

Just for kicks,
here is a list of other candidates, by team, whom I think could be eyeing this
stage:

Katusha have
options with Porsev and Paolini if Kristoff doesn't make it to contest the
sprint finish;

Big, amiable Jens
Voigt of the Trek team, is not a bad bet.I'd like to see Jensie throw caution to the wind again, and have a try
at tomorrow's course.

I wouldn't be
surprised to see Daniele Bennati, Matteo Tosatto, or Michael Morkov try to get
into the break for Tinkoff-Saxo. They will want to be looking for new race options
now that their GC leader, Contador is gone.

The entire Orica
GreenEdge Team is loaded with viable candidates for the next couple of stages.
Simon Gerrans' fifth place finish on stage 7 is the best result that the Aussie
team has put up so far in this race, so they need to get something done.
Michael Albasini might be their best bet.

Terpstra (OPQ) and Chavanel (IAM) attacked on stage 8

Andrey Grivko
(Astana) could likely get into the break if he's feeling good.

Besides Sagan,
Cannondale have a couple of riders who are itching for an opportunity to try
their luck: Elia Viviani--a very good sprinter himself--and Marco Marcato, who
could be a good breakaway candidate.

Romain Feillu of
the wildcard Bretagne-Seche squad is a sprinter who would enjoy a shot at a
stage win, particularly if the big sprinters' teams aren't around at the end.
Another option for them could be Anthony Delaplace.

Garmin-Sharp have
several potential options for stages 11 and 12. I wouldn't be surprised to see
Jack Bauer try to make the break.

Normally, I would
select Arthur Vichot for a stage like tomorrow's, but his form hasn't looked
great to me lately. FDJ have other possibilities, like Jeremy Roy, who can try
his luck on almost any terrain.

Green Jersey leader Peter Sagan

Lotto Belisol is
chock-full-of options. Greipel will probably try to be there for the finish,
but if not, then Jurgen Roelandts and Lars Bak are both well-versed in fast,
technical finishes.

Maybe Kevin Reza of
Europcar will get a chance to ride for himself tomorrow if Bryan Coquard isn't
there at the end.

I don't think we have
seen Julien Simon get into a break yet. The French Cofidis rider was fourth at
the French National Championships a couple weeks ago.

For NetApp, Paul
Voss is a good breakaway candidate; and Zak Dempster has a fast finish.

OK. So, who am I
picking for stage 11?

Not going out on
any limbs, I am sticking with the powerful Peter Sagan.

Rain has passed for
now, and it is partly clear at the start, temps in the mid 60s. The finish line
atop the summit is shrouded in rain and clouds early, but may clear later.

Today is the first
real mountaintop finish...and it's Bastille Day. Most of the parcours is up and down; very little
flat road. On paper, it is the toughest stage the riders have seen, so far. It
should be a good GC battle before the first rest day on Tuesday. Seven
categorized climbs are featured on stage 10. Four of them are category-1
climbs, including the summit finish atop the Planche des Belles Filles (5.9k at
8.5%).

The remaining 183
riders leave the start town of Mulhouse. They have 20k of flat roads to start
the day, before all the climbing begins.

Shortly after the
neutralized opening kms, the attacks begin.

*Ten riders are off
the front, and trying to form a viable break. The peloton lets them go.